US mother’s child murder trial puts spotlight on postpartum psychosis

The high-profile US murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, a woman who says she suffered from postpartum psychosis before strangling her three young children, has sparked a debate in the United States over maternal mental health.



The 36-year-old nurse does not deny strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, with fitness bands in their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.



She then jumped out of a second-storey window, leaving her paralysed from the waist down and using a wheelchair.



Clancy, however, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. Her lawyers say this was caused by postpartum psychosis.



Prosecutors have rejected her argument, saying she had planned to murder her children and was able to understand the consequences of her actions.



For the past several weeks, dozens of women dressed in pink have come to the court in Plymouth to show their support for Clancy – and to make a statement about women's health more generally.